Olivia Rodrigo brought together multiple generations of women in music Saturday night at the inaugural Daisy Chain Fields festival, leading an all-women lineup and sharing the stage with Stevie Nicks, Sarah McLachlan and Alanis Morissette. The collaborations underscored the lasting power of sharp, emotionally intelligent songwriting about women’s lives.
Rodrigo performed “Building a Mystery” and “Angel” with McLachlan, the founder of the late-’90s Lilith Fair festival that helped establish a template for Daisy Chain Fields. The pair dedicated both songs to Dolly Parton, who died Tuesday at age 80.
Rodrigo also joined Morissette for “Ironic,” the singer’s iconic mid-’90s hit. Morissette had stepped in for Karen O, who withdrew from the festival because of a family emergency.
Nicks closed the show with Rodrigo in a tender duet of Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide,” prompting a mass singalong among the approximately 45,000 people at Great Park Live in Irvine. Nicks remained onstage afterward to deliver an apparently extemporaneous tribute to Rodrigo’s artistry and activism, leaving the younger singer visibly close to tears.
“I’m somewhat awestruck that she could do all this, because it’s so hard. You have no idea — putting something together with all these people,” Nicks said. “And she’s done it with this grace and this crazy, crazy energy that she has. And I told her, ‘Don’t ever give that up and don’t ever let anybody change you or tell you, “You don’t run around this stage.” ’ ”
Nicks urged the crowd to support Rodrigo and “take her to your heart” before adding, “I have.”
All-women festival raises $20 million for women’s rights
Held several months after the release of Rodrigo’s third studio album, “You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love,” Daisy Chain Fields featured 10 hours of music from all-women acts. The lineup included Chappell Roan, Doechii, Bikini Kill, Garbage, Not for Radio, the Breeders and Mitski, among others.
Rodrigo announced Friday that the festival would donate $10 million to organizations supporting women’s rights and reproductive justice. As her performance began Saturday, philanthropist Melinda French Gates joined her onstage and said she had agreed to double the donation.
“Look at what you’ve created,” Gates told Rodrigo. “What I love about you is that you know the real power is not up here onstage — it’s with everybody there,” she added, gesturing toward the audience. “When women and girls come together to dream and to lead, we change the world.”
Olivia Rodrigo mixes new songs with “Sour” and “Guts” favorites
Rodrigo’s 80-minute set combined new songs from “You Seem Pretty Sad” with selections from her first two albums, 2021’s Grammy-winning “Sour” and 2023’s triple-platinum “Guts.” One standout was “Maggots for Brains,” a euphoric pop-punk song about losing control in a lover’s absence.
Rodrigo also debuted “Serena Joy,” a newly released song named after a character in Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
After thanking her collaborators and the “nonprofits who fight tirelessly to make our world a better place,” Rodrigo took a moment to recognize her fans at the end of the night.
“You made this happen,” she said. “You are so important and your voices matter so much.”
Rodrigo then said she would see the audience next year, which many attendees enthusiastically interpreted as a reference to a second edition of Daisy Chain Fields in 2027.
